


Brighter Tomorrow

by ModernBookFae



Category: Throne of Glass Series - Sarah J. Maas
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/M, Hurt/Comfort, Police Officer - Lorcan
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-16
Updated: 2017-06-16
Packaged: 2018-11-14 18:27:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,581
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11213727
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ModernBookFae/pseuds/ModernBookFae
Summary: Lorcan Salvaterre comforts Elide Lochan, a survivor of abuse. He gives her hope for a better future and Elide's outlook brightens with the knowledge that she is now free.





	Brighter Tomorrow

Flashing red and blue lights danced across Elide’s eyes as she stared at the crumbled smoking walls that once were her uncle’s home. But to Elide it was a prison.

_No…it was hell._

Her ankle throbbed terribly at the memory. The years she was given custody to uncle Vernon after her parent’s death had took its toll. She broke her legs on his stairs when she was only a little girl and he never let her be taken to the doctor. Never even let her step more than twenty feet out his front door.

Elide was given a tight leash that eventually turned into a chain. And then that chain became a reality the day Elide tried to escape. Vernon was quick to show that Elide would never be allowed to leave while he was still breathing.

From that day forth Elide’s life changed from bad to worse. Her ankle was injured to an extent that she couldn’t walk without limping and pain crawling up her leg.

It wasn’t until today that she welcomed that throbbing sensation. It meant she was alive.

A group of firefighter’s walked by after dousing the flames that had consumed the home all thanks to Kaltain, another woman in a long line of those who had suffered by Vernon’s hands.

Kaltain was fighter. She fought until her dying breath when she lit that house on fire in the hopes of burning Vernon and his thugs to the ground.

Elide was the avenger. She stabbed Vernon in the heart when he shot Kaltain as she tried to help Elide to safety. With all Elide’s strength she pulled Kaltain out the front door for the first time in years. The sun was rising and it poured over Elide in a basking light as she held Kaltain’s hand in a crushing grip.

But help had come too late for Kaltain. Elide begged her to stay alive as she pushed her palm into Kaltain’s wound to stop the bleeding. Kaltain smiled one last time before her dying breath drifted on a phantom wind.

Another life was extinguished in Elide’s existence.

When the first responders arrived to the fire they brought Elide oxygen and checked her vitals. The fire department worked to douse the roaring flames which took hours to control.

Through it all Elide mechanically answered the questions that bombarded her by police and EMTs.

Her eyes focused on the smoldering building. She would later find out that there were no survivors. Vernon was forever gone along with the rest of the people who…did terrible things.

“Elide Lochan.” A deep voice said and sat down beside her in the ambulance.

She blinked. That voice pulled her away from the horrific scene and she found herself staring up into dark eyes belonging to a massive man with equally dark hair. Elide felt incredibly small next to him. His police uniform did nothing to hide the muscles of his body.

He could easily hurt her if he wished. Elide narrowed her eyes at him in distrust. She wouldn’t cower, because she had done enough of that over the past few years she had been locked up.

“You are Miss Lochan correct? Niece to Vernon Lochan, the owner of this residence?” The man asked as if he wished to be elsewhere. As though he had better things to do then questioning a witness when he could be helping Whitethorn and the others on a drug raid in a neighboring town.

“Don’t say that,” Elide hissed. “I don’t want to be tied to that– that _monster_.” Her eyes seethed in anger at knowing she was family with such a wretched man. She wished she could drain every last drop that was tied to him, but then that meant losing her connection to her father. And Elide loved her father. She just couldn’t understand how he and Vernon could be brothers when Cal Lochan was a kind man while Vernon was the opposite.

The police officer watched her closely. He could see that the young woman’s mind was racing with thoughts behind her onyx eyes. She clearly was troubled and shaken by the ordeal she had went through.

“I’m officer Salvaterre,” the man paused. “But you can call me Lorcan.”

His only response was a numb nod from the woman beside him. Her bloody fingers fidgeted until she tried to wipe the blood off on her jeans.

“Were you hurt?” Lorcan motioned to her fingers.

“No,” Elide said. “Well I mean not from today, but –” Elide stopped abruptly.

Lorcan was never the one to comfort. His squad knew that. He was always the one to serve justice by force and never by a gentle hand. But this woman – Elide – made him want to try.

“You can talk about it,” Lorcan coaxed. “No one is going to hurt you anymore. I promise.”

Elide bit her trembling lip. She didn’t know this man, but he seemed genuinely concerned and didn’t look at her with pitying glances like so many other people at the crime scene.

“She wanted to save us,” Elide whispered. “Kaltain was my only friend and now…she’s gone.”

Lorcan knew the other female victim was DOA and there was nothing the medics could do to resuscitate her.

“What was she trying to save you from?” Lorcan asked. Though he and many other officers suspected Vernon, a known criminal for drug and sex trafficking, was a cause behind today’s events.

Lorcan could only hope that Elide was spared, even though that dark tendril of instincts told him otherwise.

“He did horrible things,” Elide diverted her attention to her fingers with Vernon’s dried blood on them. She started wiping her hands vigorously on her pants. Yet no matter what she did the blood wouldn’t come off.

“I – I just wanted to leave, but he wouldn’t let me. He kept me here and I couldn’t get out. I tried and he-” Elide choked on a sob. “It hurt so much. He used the chain and his friends tried to…hurt me like the others they brought in screaming. People were always screaming.”

“Elide,” Lorcan tried to calm her frantic hands that continually attempted to rid themselves of the blood. His hands gently grabbed her wrists and she jolted up to escape the memories his touch brought.

She stumbled as her ankle gave out and with a cry she fell to the floor of the ambulance.

But before her knees hit the metal she was scooped up against a broad warm chest. She froze in fear, but relaxed when Lorcan settled her on the stretcher. He sat down beside her and grabbed one of the antiseptic wipes from the medical kit.

Then Lorcan Salvaterre, the most withdrawn and hardened officer in the precinct, tenderly began wiping the blood off Elide.

Silence filled the space. Elide’s eyes trained on Lorcan’s steady motions. His hand easily covered her own and provided an odd sense of warmth that Elide didn’t even know she was missing. What had been deprived from her since her early childhood.

“You’re going to make it through this,” Lorcan said. His attention shifted to her eyes. “There are going to be tough days, but you are strong. Don’t ever let anyone say otherwise.”

“But what if they try,” Elide blinked away the tears that form in her eyes. “What if more people like Vernon-” Elide swallowed and couldn’t say the words that lodged in her throat.

“Then you will fight with everything you got,” Lorcan stated as if it was obvious. “Because that’s what you are. A fighter. And one that doesn’t give up.”

A heartbeat.

“And I will be there if you ever need me,” Lorcan said.

“Really?” Elide looked up in shock. “But why? You don’t know me.”

Lorcan shrugged. “It’s my job as an officer to protect others.”

“Oh.” Elide contemplated his words. Her pause was long before she finally spoke again. “Could I do that?”

“Do what?” Lorcan questioned having finished washing the dried blood off her fingers.

“Get a job that protect others,” Elide answered.

Lorcan stopped and looked down at the woman. Her dark tangled hair splayed on the stretcher with bruises and cuts underneath the dirt and blood that covered her in body. She was broken and bleeding. But she was a survivor. One that he could immediately tell would be a warrior until the end of her days. Much like him.

With ease Lorcan clasped her hand in his. The length of his fingers easily covered hers in warmth.

“You can do anything you wish,” Lorcan said with such vehement honesty that Elide’s eyes widened. “And don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.”

In that moment Elide saw light in a man that was surrounded by darkness each day he faced. A man who faced monsters with every new dawn like she had for the past years. She didn’t realize it at that moment, but the light in his eyes reflected her own.

Lorcan could see the hope rise in Elide. And he felt the need to keep that hope aflame and burning bright.

And so they sat in that ambulance together. Knowing that whatever the next day brought they would welcome it with fierceness that mirrored each other.

For Elide was the light and Lorcan was the dark. And together they would conquer the demons of their past, the beasts of today and the horrors of tomorrow.

And they would do so with smiles upon their faces.

**Author's Note:**

> Don't be afraid to comment or join in on [tumblr](http://modernbookfae.tumblr.com)!


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